These are the nominees for the "Game of the Year 2022
23.5.2022
Translation: machine translated
The "Spiel des Jahres" is the Oscar award for board games and the most important award for analog games worldwide. These are the nominees for this year.
Game of the Year
Cascadia
What the jury says: "Cascadia is a true feel-good game. The game moves are always rewarding, even if the choices offered are not always suitably located. Particularly successful is the two-part puzzle task, for which a good balance must be found between the matching landscapes with the correct animal symbols. High replayability is ensured by the modular rule cards, which present players with new challenges each round, as well as an optional campaign."
- 1 to 4 players
- 10 years and up
- 30 to 60 minutes
Scout
What the jury says: "Emotions do somersaults when you manage to skillfully prepare your hand of cards and deliver the perfect show at the right moment. The short game duration ensures that Scout never frustrates, even despite the existing luck factor. The game principle, which seems unassuming in its simplicity, quickly unfolds a pull that leaves the group clamoring for more encores after the last act."
- 3 to 5 players
- Ages 9 and up
- 15 to 30 minutes
Currently, we don't have "Scout" in our product line yet. We are working on offering it as soon as possible.
Top Ten
What the jury says: "Top Ten is guaranteed fun. The editorially selected scenarios tickle unexpectedly creative answers and ideas out of all participants with a wide range of emotions. Sorting through the answers, even with very tight number spacing, creates a fantastic group feeling with many memorable moments to laugh about for years to come."
- 4 to 9 players
- 12 years and up
- approx. 30 minutes
Kennerspiel of the year
Cryptid
This is what the jury says: "The high art in Cryptid is to elicit important information about the habitat of the mystical creature from the other players without revealing your own knowledge. It is immensely satisfying to gradually deduce the only logically conceivable location from the sea of clues. What starts out as a harmless collaborative task develops into a pleasantly challenging brainteaser as the game progresses."
- 3 to 5 players
- from 12 years
- 30 to 50 minutes
Dune Empire
- 3 to 4 players
- 13 years and older
- 60 to 120 minutes
Living Forest
This is what the jury says: "Three central factors make Living Forest thrilling and appealing: the exciting race to twelve points, the risky gambling while revealing cards, and the high interaction with the other players. Particularly motivating are the three different victory conditions, which ensure a high replay appeal and, depending on the course of the game, an ever-changing dynamic."
- 2 to 4 players
- from 10 years
- 30 to 60 minutes
Children's game of the year
Clever too
- 2 to 4 players
- from 6 years
- approx. 15 minutes
With Quacks and Co to Quedlinburg
This is what the jury says: "Children rarely reach for fruit and vegetables as much as they do here: It's wonderful how Wolfgang Warsch has compressed a connoisseur's game in a child-friendly way into a race that immediately captivates children thanks to its easy entry and comprehensible story. Thanks to many variants, it grows with their abilities. No nonsense: when luck sometimes shoots across and heads really smoke, this game shows its qualities."
- 2 to 4 players
- from 6 years
- approx. 25 minutes
Zauberberg
What the jury says: "In Zauberberg, the popular marble run is used in a new way. It becomes the setting for magical races: cooperatively, in teams or alone. The attractive game structure draws children to the game table and the innovative marble mechanism won't let them go in a hurry. Here, animated discussions about the placement of marbles are followed by spellbound glances at the marble run. It's a total package that keeps kids entranced."
- 1 to 4 players
- from 5 years
- approx. 15 minutes
Assessment from the board game expert
To better classify the nominated games, I asked our board game expert Alessandro Grieco for his opinion. He is a passionate board and card player, organizes weekly game nights in private and has already written several game reviews for Galaxus.
Did you discover anything new among the nominees or have you already played all the games before?
If I'm honest, I haven't played any of the nominees yet. Except for Scout, I have heard and read about all of them. But to change that, I ordered all the games right after the nominations were announced. So I'm going to spend a lot of time with them in the coming months.
